Chattanooga City Council approves new flag

In a 6-3 vote, the Chattanooga City Council approved the adoption of a new flag for the city Tuesday night over concerns by some residents that not enough community members were involved in the process.

The new flag is green with a blue stripe in the middle, and features the city seal in the center. It replaces a red flag, which looks similar to the Tennessee state flag, with a blue seal containing a white star and dogwood petals in the center.

"The idea was to put together something that would tell our story," said David Crockett, former councilman and former director of Chattanooga's Office of Sustainability, who was part of the group that designed the flag in the 1990s.

Councilmen Andraé McGary and Peter Murphy said they had heard from residents who were concerned about the design. Murphy said the majority of people he spoke with were in favor of keeping the existing flag.

Of the residents he spoke to, McGary said, many wanted to be included in the design process and he proposed a committee be formed to re-examine the design. His proposal failed to get a second.

Crockett said many community members were involved in the design process, but some residents said they would like to have input on the design, which began development in 1994 -- years before what one resident called "Chattanooga's renaissance."

"Not only does our city have an entirely different reputation 20 years later, but it has an entirely different set of resources, including an active and very engaged creative community," said Tianna Buckwalter, creative director the Company Lab, who spoke on behalf of several Chattanoogans.